[interesting]

Because I was the single male in the pool, it was decided that I would be the tag at first. The game was fairly simple, as Rita explained it: Danielle and her would swim about the pool. I would smin after them and tag them. If I managed to tag one, she would swim to the edge of the pool, stay there and I would have to tag the other. But the girl which I had not tagged would be allowed to rescue her fallen friend by tagging her before I was tagged. There would be a break everyone time someone got tagged.

It had been several years since I'd played anything of the sort and I'd never played it a pool, let alone with two girls. I didn't think too much of it: for me, it was a chance to keep on swimming. My mind wandered for a moment to Paul, whom I was apparently ditching for his sister and her friend. I decided I wouldn't take too much time here - maybe fifteen to twenty minutes - before going to join him.

I started at the shallow end, hanging on to the side. I wasn't that good a swimmer, compared to Paul or his sister; I had no idea of Rita's skills, she had only been waddling through the water so far. The pool wasn't that wide, mostly long, so it was fairly easy for me to attempt to ambush one of them on one side. I didn't like putting my head underwater in the chlorine; I thought that the girls would eventually dive to get away from me and I might lose them. Then, I realized I was overthinking the game, and just ran after them.

It was a full minute before I managed to tag one of them. There was a lot of back and forth at first, and they were both great swimmers it turned out. But I was taller and stronger than them, so I compensated my lack of skill with reach and power. Rita was swimming away when I grabbed her foot. We paused the game and she reached the edge. It was down to Danielle and me.

It was hard to cover Rita and go after her; it was obvious the game could stall, so we talked and decided that the tagger (me, in this case), had to go after the target or whoever had been tagged would be free after ten seconds of inactivity. Tagging Danielle proved to be even more of a challenge. Perhaps I was holding back, for fear of touching her skin. I had experienced no such qualms with Rita. In any event, eventually, she tried to dive under me while I was in the deep end. I managed to flip myself facing down, head under water, and tag her good on the back. But my flip caused me to drink up the pool water and start coughing. It took my full concentration to reach the edge, grab hold of it and cough up my lungs.

Rita swam over to my side to check on me; Danielle got out of the water and came towards me. I lifted my eyes, saw her costume clinging to her body and the same ideas I had experienced before came into my mind. I chased them away with my coughs. It was enough for me. I climbed out of the water and sat on the ledge.

"You okay?"

Rita seemed concerned. Danielle was a bit more distant.

"I'm good... just... too much water. I'm gonna have to stop, sorry."
"It's okay. Anyway, you won."
"Yeah!"

Danielle backed up her friend's statement with a smile that eased my physical pain. I really did like her company, even if sometimes my thoughts became inappropriate for our relationship. Danielle even put a hand on my shoulder as I coughed; her touch felt nice and cool. Her wet hair was clinging to her neck as much as her costume was to her body; she had a nice adventurous look about her. I smiled back then coughed again.

As I got up, I became aware that my own costume was clinging to my body; in my case, however, it clearly made my crotch stand out. I don't know if I blushed but I did the only thing a man can do in that situation: pull on the cloth and try to replace it. I imagined the two girls staring at me. It was time to leave, not that I really wanted to.

"I should go see Paul."
"Sure. Thanks for the game."
"No problem, Rita. Danielle."

They both smiled at me. It was nice of Danielle to acknowledge me for a change. I'd always felt odd around her, as if she didn't want me around. Perhaps it was because her brother wasn't there. She didn't have to pretend for his sake. In any case, I went into the bathroom with my towel, where I had a change of clothes. I took off my bathing suit and suddenly realized I had left everything on the bench outside. It took me a moment to decide on what to do. I wrapped the towel around myself, covering my nudity, and walked out, to retrieve my things. As the girls looked at me, I felt obliged to answer.

"Forgot my stuff..."

I could only imagine what was going through their minds: I knew what was going through mine. Drop the towel and you'll be naked. I chased that thought away. I was doing a lot of that at the moment.

I hurried drying myself and dressing up and left the girls to their games in the pool. I joined Paul in his room. We got back to our own business as I listened to his samplings, chasing the idea of the girls away from my mind as best as I could. I took out my guitar and he took out his bass and we jammed a little; he set up his machine so we could do a recording. We had to move to the basement to get it working, but once we did, we recorded a track together, one of my songs.

I was completely into it when two heads popped into the basement door. Paul noticed them first.

"Yes?"
"Hi! Cool music."
"We're recording, if you don't mind."

I didn't like how Paul was sometimes abrupt with his sister, but having two brothers of my own, I could relate to sibling rivalry. Danielle and Rita vanished back up the stairs.

"She's awfully nosy today..."
"I think it's her friend."
"Rita?"
"Yeah."

Somehow, it made sense to me that Rita was goading Danielle into looking in on us. I didn't imagine Danielle doing it on her own. I tried to calm down Paul.

"Don't worry about it."
"You say that... but I think Rita has a crush on me."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."

He didn't seem happy about it.

"Every time she visits, she finds excuses to be in the same room as me. I mean, come on, not only is she thirteen, she's my sister's best friend."
"Yeah. I get it."
"Anyway..."

We got back to our music. I was wondering how accurate Paul's perception of the events could be. It had seemed to me that Rita was infatuated with me. But then again, there was a third possibility: she was simply infatuated with both of us, because we were older and appeared more mature. That seemed the most plausible explanation.

In any case, it would have to wait for later. We heard the front door open; Paul's mother was home from her day of work. We moved up the stairs to greet her, mainly because we were starting to get hungry and wanted to know what was planned for supper. As it turned out, we ended up helping her prepare the meal, the bread, the salad and the spaghetti. His father came home and we sat down and ate; his parents were there; Paul had me and Danielle had Rita; only his younger brother wasn't there - and he wasn't expected to return for the evening either.

During supper, his parents talked about how our day had gone. We all answered politely. They then had a chat about their own plans for the evening. Because I was visiting (and because Rita was clearly sticking around), they decided that they would go into town and find something to do there. They wouldn't come back until around midnight. It was Friday anyway, and neither of them worked.

As I looked around the table, I realized that I would be spending the evening with Paul, Danielle and Rita. I wondered for a moment at what the girls would do to occupy their time. But I'm sure they would find something to do - I'd check with Paul as to our own activities for the night after supper.